


The House Has Gone Bust

by ImaSleepyBear



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Gen, Mild Gore, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-30 01:26:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19031917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImaSleepyBear/pseuds/ImaSleepyBear
Summary: The Courier confronts House about how terrible his plan is. I was frustrated that this option isn't in the game, so I wrote it myself.





	The House Has Gone Bust

Six stepped out of the elevator and stormed around the corner. She shoved the ancient, rotting curtains aside. “House!” she barked. “I need to talk to you.”

That stupid, cartoon face with the fucking eyebrow was already on the screen. “I hope it’s to tell me the Boomers have agreed to aid us.”

“No, actually, I just got done running a bunch of other errands for you.”

“I only assigned the one errand.”

“Exactly.” Six continued talking as she descended the stairs. “Did you know that the White Glove Society has been eating people? I just had to bust a guy out of their freezer.”

House grumbled, “That’s a breach of their contract.”

“Are you serious?! You thought a contract would actually make them stop?”

“It did make them stop. If they had been eating people, disappearances and kidnappings would have been reported. This must be a recent development.”

“No, it’s not. A guy on the inside told me: they started by snatching people out of Westside and other places you don’t pay attention to. They only got caught because they got lazy.” Six was at the bottom of the stairs now. She pointed an accusatory finger at the screen. “This could have been going on since the beginning! And you didn’t notice!”

“I assume you have already taken care of the situation?”

“Yeah, the guy in charge of the operation is dead and the rest know not to cross me.”

“Then I applaud your initiative. You’ll be rewarded for this, of course. I would hate to dis-incentivize such a proactive attitude.”

“Hold up, I’m not done.” Six approached the giant computer. “The Omertas were conspiring with the Legion to bomb this place and take over the Strip. I took care of that for you, too.”

“And I suppose you want a greater reward for a greater accomplishment?”

“That’s not the point.”

“Then make your point so we can both get back to work.”

Six took a deep breath and pushed down the urge to punch the screen. “You forced out the Kings because they wouldn’t pledge loyalty to you. All they wanted was to be free and help others do the same. And now they’re out in Freeside, trying their damnedest to maintain order in that slum. Meanwhile, of the three tribes that did join you, one stole the Chip, one kept eating people, and one tried to sell out Vegas to fucking Caesar. You promoted a bunch of lying snakes who will do or say whatever they must to get what they want. But you don’t know about any of this because you just stay locked up in here with your big visions and your pre-war nostalgia and your fucking snow globes.”

“Is that your point?”

“I’m getting there.”

“Could you take a shortcut?”

“You’re a bad leader, and Vegas is suffering under you.”

The face on the screen didn’t change, but Six swore it was glaring at her. “Vegas is suffering under me. Really. Let me teach you a little history. I’m sure you’ve heard this already, but apparently you have the retention of an amnesic goldfish. Before I took control, Vegas was a ruin populated by intellectually defunct tribals barely a step above neanderthals. I brought them electricity, clean water, solid walls. Security, comfort, luxury. I accomplished all this in the span of months. By the time the NCR arrived, they were no match for my army or my infrastructure. I reduced them from a threat to a customer. And now, with the addition of their wealth, Vegas is a paradise. It is the redemption and future of humanity. And yet you come into my domain and tell me to my face that this oasis of progress and its inhabitants are ‘suffering’ under me.”

“Yeah, all of it nearly got blown to bits! If I hadn’t happened along, the Legion might have come in here and raped this place, literally and figuratively! I didn’t even tell you what happened at McCarren: the Legion tried to bomb the monorail. You would have lost all those NCR customers you’re so proud of. Oh, I stopped that, too.”

“Do you want more money?”

 _“I want you to fucking listen to me!”_ Six slammed her fist on the console. “The Omertas call you Not-At-Home. Benny said he got the idea to take over because you weren’t paying attention to the Strip. You need to get out there and _talk to people_ . You want to take Vegas and stick it in a spaceship and go somewhere else in a hundred years. But with the way you’re running the place, Vegas might not even _exist_ in a hundred years.”

“Vegas would not exist right now if I had not protected and reforged it.”

“Yeah, I know, you’ve been patting yourself on the back for 200 years, your hand must hurt by now.” Six blinked. “You know what? Let’s check on that.”

“What are you doing?”

Six strode to the computer terminal in the corner of the room. There was a slot for the Platinum Chip. She drew the device from her pocket and slipped it in.

“You’re going to regret that.”

“I think you’re going to regret it a lot more than me.” She found the option she was looking for and hit Enter.

The securitrons opened fire. Six ducked and fired a few shots as a distraction, but the bullets just bounced off. Damn it, she should’ve done this before upgrading those things. She cursed under her breath and made a break for the secret door she had just opened.

She found herself in a small, neglected room with machinery stacked against the wall and cables strewn around carelessly. Except for an elevator, there was no way out. For a moment, she feared the securitrons would take the opportunity to try out their new grenade launchers, but they just kept firing bullets at her. Maybe House was afraid to damage the equipment in here. That must mean she was heading in the right direction. Six punched the button to summon the elevator and then turned around to shoot at the securitrons. After the door slid open behind her, she backed into the cabin and pressed herself up against the wall. She hit the button to close the elevator. As it shut, she pulled a grenade from her belt, bit the pin off, and then tossed it through the narrow opening. The heavy metal muffled the blast that followed.

Six panted as she holstered her gun and got her bearings. There were buttons for only two floors: the penthouse and a “control room.” She pressed the second. Metal screeched and cables groaned as the elevator began to move. How long had it been since someone used this thing? Who was that last person?

She didn’t check the time. She knew it would make the descent feel longer.

The elevator finally came to a stop. There was no welcoming chime or beep as the door opened. This floor was never intended for guests. Six stepped out. She wasn’t sure what to expect, but the single catwalk floating above an industrial abyss took her by surprise. She had no idea where in the casino this room could possibly fit. She tried to look down through the grated floor, but it made her head spin. Instead, she stared straight ahead and kept moving.

With each step, she felt as if she was trespassing in the tomb of someone long dead. Six used to get that feeling from some of the pre-war buildings. But then the outside world crept in, filling them with dirt and light and wind and life. Not here. Life had never breached the sanctity of this grave. Six swallowed. She shouldn’t be here.

There was a computer terminal at the end of the catwalk. Behind it, some kind of metal-and-glass container. Didn’t people used to be buried in things like that, before the war? Six crept forward. No matter how afraid she was, she had to look inside. She took a deep breath and leaned over the glass. A shriveled corpse was nestled in the cold, hard metal. Yup, this was a coffin. But who would House go through all this effort to preserve? She didn't think he cared about anyone that much.

The corpse’s eyes met her gaze.

Six screamed and fell backwards. As she hit the grate, one of her grenades came loose and rolled away. She reached for it, but it fell off the catwalk and into the endless chasm below. Six shouldn’t have looked down. She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her head against the metal floor. She took slow, measured breaths until her stomach stopped turning and her head stopped spinning.

All this time, she had assumed that House uploaded his brain to a computer, like what he did with his girlfriend and the sexbot. But no. He was here all along. He had been here for the last two hundred years.

Keeping her eyes closed, Six eased herself up into a sitting position. Vegas was ruled by a man whose entire world was a metal box in a dungeon. Just like those snow globes. This had to end, or the whole Mojave would collapse.

Six opened her eyes. She grabbed the railing next to her and pulled herself to her feet. Step one, done. She walked over to the computer. It was unlocked; there was no security or password. House must have thought nobody would ever get this far. Six found and selected the command to open the life support chamber.

House’s box rattled violently as it came to life. There was a hiss and a rush of steam, and then the lid popped loose and creaked open. House’s arms jerked helplessly, as if he was trying to grab the lid and pull it closed, but they were stiff and weak from disuse. The bed House was strapped to rose and tilted until he was upright, and then rotated him to face forward.

His chest heaved and his lips moved, struggling to form words for the first time in two hundred years. Six stepped out from behind the terminal. She had to draw closer to hear his faint, wheezing voice. “Why have you… done this? Centuries of preparation… so much good, undone…”

She shook her head. “What good? You’re holding Vegas back.”

“No. Carrying it… into future.”

“The future _you_ want. Did you ask the citizens what they think of your plan? How many of them have volunteered to leave everything behind and colonize another planet? Am I the only human who knows about the rockets?”

“Earth destroyed… torn apart and… irradiated… no other option.”

“Yes, there is another option, and we’ve already chosen it. If you just looked out the window, you would know.”

“Building on the ruins… of the… old world… cycle will only… repeat.”

“What, and it won’t repeat on another planet? That’s human nature. Different scenery won’t change who we are. We have to look at what we’ve done and change our actions.”

“You think you alone… can change course… of history? Your… vanity project… doomed to fail.”

Six couldn’t help laughing. “Taking over Vegas is a vanity project? What, and your plan isn’t one?” She swept her hand out, gesturing to House’s entire fortress. “You didn’t do any of this for Vegas, or humanity. You did it for yourself. Because you couldn’t let go of the old world or the things you accomplished in it.” She looked over her shoulder. “And if Vegas wants to move on, I have to tear it all down.”

As she walked back to the terminal, House rasped behind her, “May there be… a hell… for you… a Tartarus… bleak, unending…”

Six flipped through the options. She found something about sterilizing the chamber. She bit into her bottom lip, turned it over in her mind, and then hit Enter.

House was lowered back into the box, and the lid closed above him. A high-pitched whine began, and the chamber filled with light, obscuring the old man inside. Then a loud pop, followed by a splatter of blood on the glass. The light faded.

Six turned around and walked back across the catwalk, her footsteps echoing in the abyss.

**Author's Note:**

> According to the game files, Mr. House has 10 Luck but only 5 Intelligence. He's really not that smart. It wouldn't be such a problem if he wasn't trying to control the fate of humanity.


End file.
